Mrs. Claire Craanen is a speechwriter in NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, Press & Media Section. She writes speeches, articles and other written material for the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General.

Prior to joining the speechwriting team, she was a member of the Counter-Terrorism team in NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division, where her main responsibility was to provide political advice and recommendations on NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism. She also worked several years in crisis anticipation/ horizon scanning and wrote policy papers to inform NATO’s senior leadership of potential upcoming security developments in the Middle-East and North Africa, Russia, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

She started her career at NATO in the Operations Division where she was responsible for analysing and assessing political and security developments related to the Alliance’s operations in Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Iraq and at sea off the Horn of Africa.

Mrs. Craanen is the Secretary General of the Brussels chapter of Women in International Security (WIIS), a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the visibility and leadership of women in the field of security and defence.
Claire Craanen graduated from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands with a Masters Degree in Political Science/ International Relations and has a Certificate in Peace and Conflict studies from the University of California, Berkeley.